June 17 – Daily Notes – Amanda

Today’s 1 Kings reading includes a very cool story where we see God show up in power just when it seemed like the bad guys were going to win out. This story also shows us that God doesn’t have to conform to our ideas and constructs. In our understanding, wet wood doesn’t burn. In our understanding, dead people don’t come to life. God disagrees.

1 Kings 18:1-46:

7-16 – Though Obadiah was a high-ranking official in Ahab’s kingdom, he followed the Lord. Obadiah, here, fears that Elijah will not present himself to Ahab and Obadiah will look like a liar and be killed.

22-24 – Though we are not normally supposed to put God to the test, Elijah, a prophet of God, was clearly intended to do this.

27 – Elijah taunts the prophets of Baal as they desperately try to get Baal to show up.

39 – God’s power, which proves to be far greater than Baal’s, turns people’s hearts back to him.

Acts 11:1-30:

2 – Yes, the “circumcision party” sounds like a terrible party, but this isn’t actually referring to a party with balloons and confetti. This is simply referring to a group of people who held to Jewish law and custom, but were believers in Christ.

4-18 – It’s beautiful that these Jewish believers find great joy in God extending his grace and salvation to gentiles as well.

26 – The term “Christian” means “little Christs”.

Psalm 135:1-21:

This is a psalm recounting a variety of reasons why God is praiseworthy and other gods are not. You could replace verse 8-12 with all the wonderful things God has done for you that give you reason to praise him.

Proverbs 17:12-13:

12 – Well, I think that sums up how undesirable and destructive folly is.